Dawn Mining
Company (Owned by Newmont Mining Corp.) mined uranium on the
Spokane Indian Reservation and processed it into yellowcake at
Ford, Washington. The company ceased operations in 1982 and must
clean up after itself, but claims there is no money to do so. Its
parent, the wealthy and powerful Newmont Mining Corporation says
it is not financially responsible for the reclamation. Newmont
solution is to convert a gigantic hole into a radioactive waste
dump.

Tribal
elders from around the northernmost mountains of the island of
Luzon in the Philippines gathered in the village of Kili to sign a
"bodong" (traditional unity pact) to oppose plan by
Newmont to dig for gold on their ancestral lands.

For more than 30 years the
city of Ilo, located at south dessertic Peruvian coast is affected
by a permanent aggression to the environment and health as result
of mining activities of the Southern Peru Copper
Corporation (owned by Newmont Mining Corp).

Nearly
728 people from Ilo, most of them children who have medical
reports of respiratory illnesses they suffer presented a plaintiff
in September 1995 at the United States District Court for the
Southern District of Texas, Corpus Christi Division.

(Reproduced
for electronic posting by Newmont Watch).

SHOSHONE TRIBAL MEMBER ON
NEWMONT

Newmont Mining Corporation is now the
largest mining company in North America. Newmont dominates the
“Carlin Trend,” in northeastern Nevada, the largest gold
district in North America. Yet Newmont and other mining
corporations use this land without the input or the consent of the
Western Shoshone people. Newmont continues to ignore the rights
and responsibilities, given by the Creator, to the Western
Shoshone people to protect our Mother Earth.

Newmont continues to destroy the
sacredness of the Mother Earth. To a traditional person, the
waters, lands and air are givers of live. These are the most
sacred. The traditional Western Shoshone people watch and see the
contamination of the air, waters and land. Yet, the United States,
Bureau of Land Management, the State, and most of all the mining
corporation, say that it is okay.

Newmont Mining company has also destroyed
cultural and religious sites of the Western Shoshone in its gold
mining ventures, including what is called the James Creek Shelter.
When a mining company knowingly destroys our way of life, they are
knowingly committing genocide to our culture and religion.

In the Western Shoshone creation story,
it tells about the use of rocks, if they are to be used at all.
All rocks must be used for good purposes, not to destroy. But the
nuclear industry has used the rocks against all life on Earth
Mother. The nuclear industry has contaminated so much of Western
Shoshone land. Over 1,000 nuclear bombs have been exploded over
the Nevada Nuclear Test site. Now they want to bring the
nation’s nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. The low-level nuclear
waste dump south of Beatty, Nevada is now reporting radioactive
waste leaking into the ground and water table. Surely this water
contamination will be left for tomorrow’s children.

We hear the Newmont wants to bury
low-level nuclear waste in their abandoned uranium mine to raise
money for their reclamation costs. I don’t believe a large
multinational mining corporation like Newmont is concerned about
the costs of reclamation. A few month’s profits from their gold
operations here in Western Shoshone lands could cover their costs.

But from what my family and I have seen,
Newmont is only interested in making and taking more, not cleaning
up. We know of cyanide and sulfuric acid leaks at Newmont’s gold
mines that were ignored. Newmont’s employees were being
contaminated by mercury fumes that blew in their lunchroom.
Newmont denied it right up to the point where they couldn’t hide
from it any longer. One of my family members was fired by Newmont
because he was more concerned about the health and safety of
fellow co-workers during a fire than himself.

It is clear to me that to allow Newmont
to bury low-level nuclear waste in their uranium mine is an insult
to all life. As a traditional person, I must think of the
generations to come and of those who have no voice. Without clean
air and clean waters there can be no life.

Carrie Dann

Citizen of the Western Shoshone Nation
Director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project